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Hotels in Lucerne

We will be staying in Lucerne for two nights in late June. There are three of us - two adults and one seven year old. I'm hoping to spend CHF350 or less. We will be arriving (and leaving) by train and would prefer to stay near-ish to the train station (and the main sights).

I'm looking at Hotel Flora, which looks very nice. Has anyone stayed there and can share their experience? Or are there other recommendations?

I have not stayed at that hotel. The south side of the river is modern and business like and allows car traffic. The north side of the river is a somewhat medieval mostly pedestrian zone with cozy shops and restaurants. The two sides are really not far from each other.

greg - Your explanation of the differences between the two sides of the river is wonderful. I will explore some hotel options on the north side of the river as we will not have a car anyway.

swandav2000 - You have been so helpful with all of my questions! Des Balances looks fantastic and I will send an email inquiry. My hunch is that it may be a bit above our budget. I am also going to check out Hotel des Alpes, which is nearby and looks nice.

We did not stay at des Balances, but had a fabulous dinner there. It certainly looks good.

However, I just made a quick check with www.hrs.com for 24 June and found the rates way above your price range and way above the rates for better hotels (we stayed at the Grand Hotel National and loved it). www.hrs.com showed me some pretty good-looking hotels that fall into your price range.

Lesson learned: Use booking machines and enter your specific dates. Tripadvisor usually shows several booking machines, and sometimes one has significantly lower rates than the others.

Yes, I received an offer from Des Balances, but it is for more than we are hoping to spend (CHF470 per night). Thanks for all the recs for Hotel des Alpes - it looks great in term of cost and location!!

I stayed last year at Ameron Flora. It does have (anemic) AC...common in Europe. Many tour compnies use it, so the lobby and breakfast area can be busy at times. It has a night club on the ground level which reportedly goes till 3 a.m. on weekends ( I was there in late September, never heard a peep).

The room was nicely decorated, bathroom spacious, but major problem the first night with baby ants on the desk and around the coffee maker. They sent someone to vacuum the ants...then they swarmed again on the desk during the night. When I (gently) complained at the front desk, there was no real apology or willingness to modify the bill.

TG, after the first night, no more ants.
It was convenient and quiet, I was upgraded to a room with a tiny balcony overlooking the skyline...so mixed review overall.
I HAD preferred the Hotel des Alpes, but it was booked for my dates. Beware though, that is next door to Mr. Pickwicks, and a noisy crowd is likely there, as it is along a long lakeside row of restaurants and cafes....

Thanks for the tips, mokka4. I sent a booking request by email to Hotel des Alpes, and am waiting to hear back. It looks like they have a triple room with balcony available. I am waiting to hear if it is on a higher floor, which may help with the crowd noise. Otherwise, I think we will go for the Ameron Flora and ask for one of the higher floors on the courtyard (to hopefully avoid noise from the disco).

We were in Lucerne last June, and it was quite hot, and we were on the top floor of our hotel, which didn't help. However, we found that it cooled down considerably in the evening, so the room was comfortable if we left the windows open while we were out. We stayed in this hotel:

It had a good breakfast in a different hotel across the square. It's in a very nice spot, rather basic, but comfortable, and helpful staff. It has a strange elevator that looks like a dumbwaiter. You have to keep the button pressed to keep it moving.

I see that someone said to find your hotels through booking.com but not to book with them.

I don't understand why anyone would suggest this. I almost always book through them, and I travel quite a lot. I've never had a problem, and their system makes it very easy to change or cancel a reservation, as long as you don't choose a discounted no-changes rate. I've had many more problems booking through hotel web sites, and I really don't trust the security of these little private reservation systems.

Yes, that was me. Booking.com works just fine, but you can often get a better rate booking directly with the hotel or B&B via the phone or email. This is because booking.com gets a piece of what is booked through them, thus increasing the price to the consumer. In other words, they are a middle-man.

If you're budget-minded, then you can cut out the middleman and save a few bucks.

I usually check the hotel's own web site, and I rarely find any significant difference in price. Anyway, rather than save a "few bucks", I'd rather give my business to the service I used to find the hotel. Otherwise, it's like going to a local store to look at all the merchandise, waste the proprietor's time with questions, and then order the item from Amazon.

The prices on many hotel web sites are soft. If you call ahead a few days you may be able to get a better deal if they are a little light. I've done this many times and saved 5%-20%. If you're not on a tight budget or you want something reserved months ahead, then this approach may not be for you.

We are booked at Hotel des Alpes! I did book directly through the hotel because I had some questions about the availability of an extra bed since we are traveling with a child. They responded very quickly and efficiently and said that we would need a triple room. Only children age 5 and younger are permitted to stay with their parents in a double room. (The rate provided by the hotel was the same as the one offered on booking.com.)

Unfortunately, the triple rooms (we have one with a balcony!) are all located on lower floors. We were hoping for a higher floor to mitigate noise from the nearby cafes.

For those who have stayed at Hotel des Alpes, do we need to be concerned about noise on the river side of the hotel on the lower levels? Maybe we will just bring ear plugs and hope for the best